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CHAPTER 9 : JEHOSHAPHAT, (FOURTH) KING OF JUDAH -
JORAM, (TENTH) KING OF ISRAEL - The Allied Expedition
against Moab - Recent Discovery of " the Moabite Stone" -
Lessons of its Inscription - The March through the Wilderness
of Edom - Want of Water - Interview with Elisha - Divine
Deliverance - Defeat of Moab and Advance of the Allies - The
Siege of Kir-haraseth - Mesha offers up his Son – Withdrawal
of the Allies. (2 Kings 3:5-27.)
THE first public act of Elisha's wider ministry is connected with an event of which
the most strange and unlooked-for confirmation has been brought to light within the
last few years. When in August, 1868, the Rev. F. Klein, of the Church Missionary
Society, was traveling in Moab, his attention was directed by a friendly Sheik to a
black basalt stone, about three feet ten inches in height, two feet in width, and
fourteen and a half inches in thickness. The stone bore an inscription of thirty-four
straight lines (about one and a quarter inches apart), which on learned investigation
was found to be in the ancient Phoenician characters. The place where this memorial-
stone, or column, was found was Diban, the ancient Dibon, the northern capital of
Moab, north of the river Arnon. So far as can be judged from the shapeless mass of
ruins (comp. Jeremiah 48:18) that cover the twin hills on which the ancient city had
stood, surrounded by a wall, "it was quite within the old city walls; near what, we
presume, was the gateway, close to where the road has crossed it."^145 Whether it had
originally stood there, is another and not easily answered question.^146
Before referring to the important evidence derived from this discovery, we shall in a
few sentences, give the melancholy history of this stone. It may teach us a lesson
about "our unhappy divisions." The unexpected discovery of this stone led, in the
first place, to jealousies for its coveted possession among the European communities
in Jerusalem. In the end, in their eagerness to make as much profit as was possible
out of these contentions, the Arabs quarreled among themselves – and broke up the
stone. Happily, most of the fragments have been secured, and some "squeezes" on
paper had previously been taken, so that all the important parts of the inscription can
be read, and have - with but slight variations - been interpreted by critics of different
countries.^147
Perhaps it may be convenient here to put down such parts of the inscription as are of
importance to our present purpose, adding afterwards brief comments in explanation.
The inscription begins as follows (we mark the original lines): -
- I Mesha am son of Chemoshgad, King of Moab, the
(^)